<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Keeper of the word by HelpingHanikan</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28479867">Keeper of the word</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelpingHanikan/pseuds/HelpingHanikan'>HelpingHanikan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Reader one-shots [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, One Shot, Reader Insert, after civil war</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:15:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,903</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28479867</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelpingHanikan/pseuds/HelpingHanikan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Your job is simple, almost non-essential, but it’s important. And it’s recognized by more than just you.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Black Panther/Reader, T'Challa/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Reader one-shots [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2084520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Keeper of the word</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There is likely never to be someone quiet as unqualified as you for this job.</p><p>Young, no past experiences in the medical or psychiatric field. None of your college course covered this area. Any experience you did have was from before your move; retail, fast food, high school jobs without a future to them. Nothing but a college student who picked the wrong apartment to spend your year abroad.</p><p>But you were smart, you were kind, and not once did you mention that your next-door neighbor was the winter soldier and the world’s most wanted criminal.</p><p>“Is this hurting him?” A stupid question but what else could you say?</p><p>Dr. Azza tried to stop his slight smile. To most who had seen you so far seemed to see you as either dangerous or just strange. Dr. Azza probably had children, based on his age some might have been as old as you.</p><p>“No, it is…like sleeping. He is asleep” He explains pointing to the screens next to the upward bed surrounded holding your friend. He’s surrounded by fogged glass and several screens you don’t understand what’s on them. From the words to the math, you’d never be able to wrap your mind around what they meant.</p><p>Dr. Azza had become your new best friend over the past few days. The cryo specialist who spoke very little English, but still gave a half-smile when you made eye contact. Your fun little bracelet the Princess gave you allowed for translation, but it was still a little sketchy about catching all your words. In the end your conversations would typically turn into charades with an attempt at a language you didn’t know.</p><p>He was the one who let you pull a comfier chair into the Cryochamber room. Sat against one of the massive windows, almost completely padded white and not as bad for your back as you had thought. It wasn’t a permeant solution, but it kept you close to Bucky.</p><p>Your name is spoken on the other side of the room. Dr. Azza looks up from the chamber. Speaking into his wrist quickly, your own lighting up.</p><p><em> “I’m going to bed/home/away, is there anything you need/want/require?” </em>It spoke in an accented female voice.</p><p>“No, have a good night.” You spoke back into your bracelet.</p><p>The same female voice spoke from his side of the room. He looks up to you and smiles, waving his hand before heading out. You did the same.</p><p>Legs stretched out you slide deeper into the chair. Azza, the Sweetheart, had brought you a ‘borrowed’ sweater. You had no idea whose sweater it actually was, but they were at least three sizes bigger than you. Your face was barely visible in the piles of fabric you sank into. Too tired to walk around, but not enough to try and sleep.</p><p>Next to the sedative dispenser you were the next line in defense. A thick black mark in a red book older than you made it so. Captain Rogers refusing to give up the information made it official.</p><p>Very few people in the entire world knew what was under the black mark. You were among them, rediscovering the word on the flight over. Holding up the book to Captain Rogers like a child showing off their latest and greatest drawing. It wasn’t a long word, something simple that you easily memorized before it was crossed out with a black marker.</p><p>Under strict orders from Captain Rogers, you were to never say the word unless absolutely necessary. Everything else you were to give to the doctors, to the princess, to really anyone who wore a white coat you were to be as open as the red book.</p><p>Your face tingled slightly from the cold of the chamber. Bringing snowflakes that didn’t exist down on your eyelashes. You’d hear if there was any movement from Bucky, there wasn’t any reason not-.</p><p>The lab door opens and every part of you is sent into high gear. Sometimes one of those guards will poke their head in, see if you’ve messed with anything you weren’t supposed to. Usually, the door with be slightly opened or they’d just walk around the glass. When you’d see them, you’d give a wave, one that was almost never reciprocated.</p><p>“Hello…?” Probably should have used the bracelet.</p><p>You’ve seen King T’challa a hand full of times since being here. He looked at you a few times, nodded his head when you met him. All those times you were off to the side or weren’t a participant of the conversation for longer then a few seconds. You were just a decoration in room, a lovely statue worth a glance but not a stare.</p><p>“Your highness,” The statue comes alive in moments of panic.</p><p>Your legs were almost asleep in the position you were in. Suddenly in a standing position and your more than a little wobbly. The sweater was longer than it was wide, basically wearing a thick nightdress that almost went to your knee.</p><p>“I’m sorry, do I-do I bow?” You asked, back already slightly bent. It was an honest miracle that you didn’t grab the end of your sweater and try to courtesy.</p><p>“You do not have to, no.” He says, a softer expression then you had seen before.</p><p>He looks back to the chamber. Looking over the machine more then the person inside.</p><p>“I saw you guys do ‘I love you’ sign.” You said, prefer an awkward look over awkward silence.</p><p>And an awkward look he gave. Eyebrows knit together, head turning towards you in a <em>“what?” </em>expression.</p><p>“Oh, uh, the arms,” You cross your arms over your chest. Hands open. “It means ‘love’ in American sign language. Although it probably means something else here.”</p><p>A quarter smile was added to the look. A small shake of his head, but it wasn’t condescending.</p><p>You had gotten many looks while you were here. Most could fall into the category of, “Who is this?”, and others were small laughs and suppressed smiles that might as well shout you were doing something wrong. The guards were the easiest to handle; for a while they all looked at you as you were, an outsider and a possible danger. The big boss guard, one with the gold necklace compared to the other silver, visible tensed when you moved too close into the Princess’s space.</p><p>In your defense there was absolutely no indication about what the cultural differences were between America and Wakanda. They seemed to be bigger than you could have imaged Any massive amounts of confidence you had were gone as you reverted to an awkward young person, unsure with every step you took.</p><p>King T’challa was different in his looks didn’t appear to be from surprise how foreign you were. More in a fashion of watching a child learn how to read.</p><p> “Clench your fists,” He crosses his arms and you do the same. Your hands clenching into fists. “Just like that, it’s like our salute.”</p><p>“If I do it wrong will Princess Shuri make fun of me?” You ask looking down to your X.</p><p>The nod he gave was filled with previous experiences.</p><p>The cryo-chamber gave a steady stream of beeps from the heart monitor. It was the only monitor which had both the Wakandan and your mother language on it. Azza showed you, pointed and explained every button on the monitor, the whole thing unfortunately too tall for you to reach the very top of without standing on your tip-toes.</p><p>Soft beeping become louder in the silence you and King T’Challa. Not enough to send an alarm but enough that it would have woken you from your sleep.</p><p>“He’s dreaming,” A comment for yourself then your conversation. When the beeping starts to speed you speak again. “It’s a nightmare, he’s scared.”</p><p>“Like he’s being chased?” King T’challa asked.</p><p>“Sure, excuse me.” He takes a small step to the side when you step into his space.</p><p>The top part of the monitor, point in which you couldn’t reach, was arguably the most important part. Simplified it was another type of sedative, the type that send him deeper under where the dreams couldn’t reach him for a time.</p><p>Standing on your tiptoes a single hand reaches past you. Hovering over the button until you nod and then press down on the monitor. Beeping slowed and a hiss, to indicate the release of whatever drug was used, played throughout the room.</p><p> “Thank you,” You say. He takes a step back for you to leave the small area.</p><p>You had seen news footage of the King of Wakanda at meetings in a suit and tie, saw him when you first entered the country in robes of his country, and saw him as <em>the </em>Black Panther in the suit and shiny claws and everything. This one was new; dark sleeping pants and a long sleeve shirt that seemed to be weighted. His feet were bare, and the clothes barely made any but a small swishing noise when he moved. It looked incredibly comfortable, but bare feet on tile just made a chill appear up your spine.</p><p>A majority of your time together was silence staring at a frozen man.</p><p>“You’re Highness...?” You asked after enough time that the beeping was completely back to normal.</p><p>“You can call me T’challa.” He says in a softer voice that matched the late hour.</p><p>“How long will it take to get that stuff out of his head?”</p><p>He thinks for a minute before answering. “I don’t know, but we will help. We will do everything we can to, however long it takes.” He thinks for another few seconds. “Shuri is excited, she knows what she is doing.”</p><p>“So, he could be in there for months.” You add, nodding as if you were agreeing to something he said.</p><p>Conversation hitting another low point you walk back towards your chair. Not sitting down just yet, hovering around the area.</p><p>“A room can be made ready,” King, no, just T’challa says. “There are several in the castle that you can move into tonight.”</p><p>“He may dream again, and I want to be here for him. I wouldn’t be able to run over here if something happened, not as fast as others, anyway.” You sat back into the chair for emphasis, “Thank you for the offer.”</p><p>“One around the labs then? Steps away from your friend.” He says.</p><p>“That would be- yes, that would great.” It’s borderline greedy but a bed sounded like actual heaven compared to the chair you were living in.</p><p>He stands closer to your chair, quarter smile at your happiness for a simple room. You had seen, and heard, a lot about the confusion between Bucky and T’challa. Including full on assault from a place of anger and an urge for urgent revenge. According to Captain Rogers T’challa regretted the entire situation, enough to give him asylum and medical treatment without a blink of the eye. That all you asked for was a room, that you didn’t even actually ask for, was almost nothing.</p><p>“If there is anything else, anything at all.” He says.</p><p>“I’ll go straight to you. After your guards stare at me some more.”</p><p>It wasn’t a full laugh worthy joke but enough for you both to smile. A genuine look or relation. Even with all the knots in your back.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>